ZWICKAU PROPHETS: A short-lived subsect of the radical Anabaptists (see Anabaptists, II.), taking their name from their origin in the city of Zwickau (60 m. s.w. of Dresden), and receiving

538

their doctrines from Nikolaus Storch, a weaver (d. 1525), and Markus Stubner, who enjoyed the favor and support of Thomas Munzer (q.v.), with whose views, indeed, their own seem to have been practically identical. Storch, the real founder of the sect, apparently derived his tenets from the Bohemian Brethren (q.v.), with a strong coloring from the chiliasm of the Taborites (see Huss, John, Hussites, II., § 4), while the great inspiration of the whole was the young Protestant principle of conforming rigidly to the explicit commands of the Bible. He also claimed to possess prophetic powers, and among the elements of his attempted "return to the Bible" were apparently the separation of a believing husband or wife from the unbelieving partner, rejection of oaths, civil power, and military service, and communism-- in other words, the entire movement was a phase of Antinomianism (q.v.). It is further declared that Storch secured the appointment of twelve "apostles" and seventy-two "disciples," in imitation of New-Testament records, and that, as a result of a vision in which Gabriel appeared to him, he believed himself divinely empowered to act as the leader in the establishment of the millennial kingdom upon earth.

While Munzer was in Zwickau, all went well with the "prophets," but his successor, Nicolaus Hausmann (q.v.), was less amenable, and on Dec. 16, 1521, Storch and his followers were accused of repudiating infant baptism. He and one other alone remained obdurate and, ignoring a summons to reappear later for a second examination, he went, together with Stubner and a certain Markus Thoma, to Wittenberg to secure university support. Here he succeeded in half winning Andrews Rudolf Bodenstein von Carlstadt (q.v.), convinced Martin Borrhaus (q.v.), and for an instant swayed even Melanchthon. So serious, indeed, became the situation that Luther, then in hiding in the Wartburg, was forced to leave his retreat and return to Wittenberg, where he arrived Mar. 7, 1522. [Before he left the Wartburg, in answer to Melanchthon's difficulties about infant baptism Luther wrote a letter justifying the practise on the ground of unconscious or subconscious faith exercised by the infant, and defying his opponents to prove that the infant does not exercise saving faith. A. H. N.] He sternly repressed the radicals, though he was unable to supply their demand for Scripture passages explicitly commanding infant baptism, his conclusion being that "what is not against Scripture is in favor of Scripture, and Scripture in favor of it "-- an argument ill calculated to satisfy his opponents. Nevertheless, his presence in Wittenberg made it impossible for the Zwickau prophets to remain, and both Carlstadt and Borrhaus, continuing in their radicalism, ultimately found a more congenial home amid Zwinglian surroundings. With the exit of Storch and Munzer from Zwickau, their sectaries soon subsided, and in Apr., 1522, Luther visited the city and delivered four sermons to enormous audiences (estimated by one contemporary at 14,000 and by another at 25,000) on the evils of religious radicalism and fanaticism.

The story of the wild career of Thomas Munzer is well known. Of Stubner nothing is recorded except that, after leaving Wittenberg, he went to Kemberg, a town of Prussian Saxony, where he disappeared from history. Concerning the fortunes of Storch there is more information. After the Wittenberg episode he apparently remained for some time in Thuringia, for Luther seems to have had another interview with him shortly before Sept., 1522. He would also appear to have remained with Carlstadt in Orlamunde, but in 1524 he was in Hof, where he renewed his agitation until he was driven from the place, only to repeat his madness at Glogau in Silesia. Early in 1525 he was apparently cooperating with Munzer in stirring up the Peasants' War, and in the course of this occupation he seems to have come to Munich, where he is said to have died in a hospital. During the closing years of his life it would seem that his radicalism increased, for he is reported to have taught rejection not only of marriage and of infant baptism, and the renunciation of all worldly goods, but also to have inculcated full indulgence of the flesh and the right of deposing and even of killing civil authorities.

Bibliography: A. H. Newman, History of Anti-Pedobaptism, pp. 62-76, Philadelphia, 1897; G. Tumbult, Die Wiedertaufer, pp. 8-11, Bielefeld, 1899; R. Bachmann, Niclas Storch, der Anfanger der Zwiekauer Wiedertaufer, Zwickau, 1880.